With heavy hearts, the Eden Prairie girls’ lacrosse team captured its third state championship on Saturday. It defeated Lakeville South 14-13 in double overtime at Minnetonka High School.

Junior midfielder Kelly Wolfe scored the game-winning goal with 1:29 left in a sudden death double overtime period after a foul near the Cougars' goal. 

The Eagles all wore blue ribbons in their hair in honor of junior diver and Alpine skier Sydney Galleger, 17, who died on Friday after going into cardiac arrest while getting her wisdom teeth removed this week.

“I was pushing to win for Sydney,” Wolfe said. “I wanted to win it for Eagle Nation.”

Eden Prairie (18-1) won the program's first state title since 2009. The game was the first girls’ state title game to go into double overtime since the tournament was mandated by the state in 2007. It also was the first loss of the season for Lakeville South (18-1).

The two teams went back and forth throughout the game, with Cougars senior Logan Halvorson tying the game with 1:09 left to force overtime. 

Both teams failed to capitalize on their chances during overtime, forcing a sudden death double overtime period that paved the way for Wolfe’s unassisted goal.

“It’s great to be back [as state champions] ,” Eden Prairie girls’ lacrosse co-head coach Judy Baxter said. “We’re happy to be wearing blue [ribbons]. It’s been a long time. We’ve had a lot of close battles in those last eight years where we could’ve won, but we let it slip away.”

Lakeville South scored the first goal less than two minutes into the first half but lost it and never regained despite tying the game three times in the second half. 

The Cougars tied the game at 8 in the second half after junior forward Chloe Crosby and senior forward Maddy Canney scored consecutive goals.

The Eagles responded with three goals to take an 11-8 lead with 12:28 left.
Lakeville South rallied once again, getting goals from freshman midfielder Emma Schaefer and Crosby, to tie the game at 12 with 5:58 left.

“It was not our best lacrosse,” Baxter said. “We made some mental errors that were not as we planned. But in the end, we stuck to our game plan. We knew they had the best draw control specialist, and we had to get the ball in play to play the possession game.”

Eden Prairie outshot Lakeville South 23-17 in the game, with 11 of its 14 goals unassisted. Crosby had a game-high four goals on four shots. Senior forward Jessica Lagerquist and sophomore midfielder Sammie Morton led Eden Prairie with three goals each.
 

The Eden Prairie girls’ lacrosse team captured its third state championship on Saturday, defeating Lakeville South 14-13 in double overtime at Minnetonka High School.

Junior midfielder Kelly Wolfe scored an unassisted goal with 1:29 left in a sudden death double-overtime period.

The goal gave Eden Prairie its first state title since 2009 and the first girls’ state title to go into double overtime since the inception of the tournament in 2007.

The two teams went back and forth throughout the game, with Cougars senior Logan Halvorson tying it at 13-13 with 1:09 left to force overtime. Lakeville missed an opportunity to win the game after a shot sailed over the net with four seconds left.

Both teams failed to capitalize on their chances during overtime, forcing a sudden-death double-overtime period.

Lakeville South never regained the lead after scoring the first goal less than two minutes into the game, despite tying the game three times in the second half. The Cougars tied it at 8 after junior forward Chloe Crosby and senior forward Maddy Canney scored consecutive goals.

The Eagles scored three goals to take an 11-8 lead with 12:28 left.

Lakeville South rallied once again, this time on goals from freshman midfielder Emma Schaefer and Crosby, to tie the game at 12 with 5:58 left.

The Eagles led 7-6 at halftime after a late rally by Lakeville South to close the half. Canney scored two goals during the final minute of the first half to trim a three-goal deficit.

The Eagles quickly responded at the start of the second half, with senior forward Angie Heppelmann giving Eden Prairie at two-goal cushion three minutes into the second half.

Eden Prairie outshot Lakeville South, 23-17 in the game.

Check back later for more on the game.